Slack is the increasingly popular choice for businesses in need of an internal chat tool, but until now the app made it difficult to start a private group chat, say with three or four people.
But Slack's latest update allows anyone to easily turn a private, direct message into a group chat.
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Before, if you needed to address more than one person in Slack regarding a particular topic or event, the best way was to create a new channel.
With this new group messaging feature, Slack users can use the software to get even more focused on team-specific tasks, or perhaps just use it for more social needs (group lunch meetings, etc.).
To get it working, simply click on "Direct Messages" on the left side of the app as you would normally (shortcut: Cmd-Shift-K on OS X or Ctrl-Shift-K on Windows), then begin adding the names of team members you want to include.
The group message feature works for up to eight other people. If you need to include more people than that, Slack figures you're better off creating a channel.
On the sidebar, the new group chats will be accompanied by a lock icon, indicating that the conversation is open only to users included in that chat. And if you ever want to add more people, you don't need to start a new chat, you can simply go in and add more people to the existing chat.
This latest update isn't necessarily a game changer for the app, but in terms of besting the competition, such as Yammer, HipChat and others, Slack just got a bit more attractive.